Earlier this I sold two Phoenician tetradrachms struck at the mint of Tyre, under the authority of Emperor Caracalla, c. 213-217 CE, see photos below. The coin on the left side is a profile view of Caracalla seen from behind, Prieur #1546A, 12.09 gm., & the coin on the right side is a profile view seen from the front, Prieur #1549 13.23 gm. The reverses on both, coins although struck from different dies, are amazingly similar & look like they could have been made by the same celator. The eagles, their size & layout, & the lettering look like they were done by the same hand. Despite the portraits being different they do share style similarities, & again the lettering style, size & layout look like they were done by the same hand. Any thoughts ?
Those are just beautiful. Yes, I think you are correct. It looks like the same hand to me. The stylistic flourishes in the lettering seem to match perfectly.
Looking at reverses, I would say yes, you're undoubtably right Looking at obverses, there's something very different in the way Caracalla's eyes are shaped and in the expression of the eyes that leads me to say no. But there might very well have been two different celators for obverse and reverse Q
I've noticed this kind of thing with Flavian coins too, almost to the point where I've become a fan of certain engravers.
For some reason this reminds me of my favorite college professor who was asked if Homer actually wrote the Iliad and Odyssey. He answered, "Or some other Greek by the same name." The point is we can never know for any given work just what was done that produced the end result and need to be careful not to jump to conclusions that mint A did things the same way that mint B did. I always like to tr to spot 'same hand' coins but have to admit they could be evidence of two students of the same master, the master and pupil or even the result of a workshop team effort. We can not prove that any die was done by just one hand. If I were running the operation and had apprentices to train, I could see having one do the hair and another the faces while a third did only lettering and a new kid put in the circle of dots. If you study the operation of modern art masters like Rodin you find the master's name on many things he never, himself, touched. Certainly there were operations with only one engraver and others with a large staff. In this case, I agree there is enough shown to support calling it 'same hand' but I hope we realize when we answer any question of this type we could be dealing with two (or more) Greeks with the 'same name'. For certain! I can not see how anyone could collect a specific series intently without having such thoughts but have been told by my 'betters' that such questions are a waste of time. I still have my favorites but mine are a century after the last Flavian.
